Savard would name the general manager and also have the final word on the new head coach – as general managers always do. And knowing Savard as I do, he’d allow his general manager to have all kinds of output in the selection, but my great and good friend would have the final word. He insists on it in everything he does.

Would that bring Patrick Roy’s name to mind? I don’t think so, even though Savard is a big fan of the goaltender who brought Stanley Cups to the team in 1986 and 1993 – after GM Savard brought Patrick to the Canadiens in ’86.

Savard knows that Roy is an excitable guy … that he often makes decisions of the moment he might regret later.